It was not immediately clear from the brief report by the official Xinhua news agency if any of the death sentences would be commuted, as sometimes happens in China.

Another person was give life imprisonment, Xinhua said. It gave no other details.

State television showed deserted streets and heavy security around the courthouse, which it said was closed for all other business.

Last month, China announced the first charges to be laid in connection with the unrest, with 21 people charged with murder, arson, robbery and damaging property during ethnic riots that erupted in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, on July 5.

In Xinjiang’s worst ethnic violence in decades, Uighurs attacked majority Han Chinese in Urumqi, after taking to the streets to protest against attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in southern China in June that left two Uighurs dead.

Han Chinese in Urumqi sought revenge two days later.

The violence left 197 people dead, mostly Han Chinese, and wounded more than 1,600, according to official figures. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Chris Buckley and Alex Richardson)

www.alertnet.org

ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS IN EAST TURKISTAN Uyghur Foundation Stichting Oeigoeren Nederland Stichting Uighur Jurat Barat  Stichting Uyghur Oost-Turkestan Uyghur Logo Nederlanders Holland Europe HUMAN RIGHTS  Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Erkin Alptekin Rebiya Kadeer

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Haji Memet and Abdusalam Nasir were detained on 23 September, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwest China, reportedly on suspicion of leaking “state secrets”. The “state secrets” are believed to be related to allegations of torture that led to the death of Shoret Tursun, Haji Memet’s relative. Both men are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

Haji Memet is related to Shohret Tursun, who was detained on 6 July in Urumqi, capital of the XUAR. Shohret Tursun died in custody. On 19 September, the police in Lengger (Chinese: Langan) village in Korgas (Chinese: Huocheng) county, Ili (Chinese: Yili) prefecture gave Shohret Tursun’s body to his family, stating that he had suffered a fatal heart attack. According to the family, his chest was covered in bruises and his legs, stomach and back were scarred and cut.  Shohret Tursun’s family believes he died as a result of torture. They refused to bury the body immediately as requested by the police and called for an investigation. Radio Free Asia, quoting unnamed villagers, reported that the family home was surrounded on 19 September by eight truck loads of soldiers and two armed vehicles, who prevented villagers from visiting the family.

Soldiers forcibly entered the family’s home on 19 September and threatened to bury Shohret Torsun if the family did not do so themselves. The family then buried Shohret Tursun on Sunday 20 September. Abdusalam Nasir was involved in performing the burial rites. According to Radio Free Asia, Shohret Tursun’s father used Abdusalam Nasir mobile phone before the burial to call Radio Free Asia, which then published the allegations of torture on 19 September.

There has been a heavy police presence in the village since the burial of Shohret Tursun as the police have been investigating who is the source for Radio Free Asia, regarding information on Shohret Tursun’s case. They are said to still be searching for a third, unnamed person.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Mandarin, English or your own language;
Demand the authorities immediately and unconditionally release Haji Mamat and Abdusalam Nasir, unless they are charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offence;
demand they are not tortured or otherwise ill-treated while they remain in custody;
call on the authorities to ensure they have access to their family and legal counsel of their choice;
urge the authorities to conduct an independent and impartial investigation into the allegations that Shohret Tursun’s death in custody was as a result of torture, with a view of bringing those guilty to justice.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 16 October TO:
Chairman of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Regional People’s Government
Nur BEKRI Zhuxi
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu Renmin Zhengfu,2 Zhongshanlu, Wulumuqishi, 830041
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu
People’s Republic of China
Email: master@xinjiang.gov.cn
Salutation: Dear Chairman
Chairman of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission of the People’s Republic of China
YANG Jing Zhuren
Guojia Minzu Shiwu Weiyuanhui
252 Taipingqiaodajie, Xichengqu
Beijingshi 100800
People’s Republic of China
Salutation: Your Excellency

Director of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Regional Department of Public Security
LIU Yaohua Tingzhang
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu Gong’anting
58 Huanghelu
Wulumuqishi 830001
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu
People’s Republic of China
Salutation: Dear Director

Send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

URGENT ACTION

Two Uighur men at risk of torture

Additional Information

Shohret Tursun was one of some 40 people from Korgas who were detained around at the time of the July riots in Urumqi, the regional capital. According to his father, quoted by Radio Free Asia, he was transferred to Ili on 18 July and further on to Korgas on 23 July.

All over China, tight security measures are in place as the country prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October 1949. These include checkpoints on all roads leading to Beijing and suspension of postal services for liquids. Many human rights activists are being silenced to ensure celebrations proceed according to the authorities plan and thousands of people have been detained in “strike hard” anti-crime campaigns. The authorities have again stopped issuing travel permits to foreigners to the Tibet Autonomous Region, and in the XUAR, the recent riots have only added to the heavy security.

Following the July unrest in the XUAR the authorities have detained thousands, reportedly brought dozens to trial, and threatened those involved in the unrest with harsh sentences. The authorities have interpreted all signs of dissent as stemming from “terrorist” or “separatist” activities, justifying their harsh crackdown while ignoring deep-rooted sources of the discontent. Authorities claim that the July unrest was orchestrated by organizations operating outside China including the World Uyghur Congress whose current president is Rebiya Kadeer, former prisoner of conscience. Eye-witness accounts received by Amnesty International contradict government accounts of the events of July, and suggest excessive use of force on the part of the authorities resulting in injury and deaths.

A recently concluded meeting of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee vowed to “effectively prevent and resolutely crack down on ethnicity-related separatist activities” and to institutionalize measures to combat corruption.

Over recent years the Chinese authorities have increasingly used vaguely-worded provisions in the Criminal Law to curtail freedom of expression. These include “disturbing public order” and “endangering state security”, which includes, among others, “subversion of state power”, “separatism” and “leaking state secrets”. The definition of “state secrets” is very broad and arbitrary, and can be retroactive and hence open to misuse: people charged with these crimes are often deprived of many rights, including access to legal counsel of their choosing, access to family and a public trial. Rebiya Kadeer, for example, was convicted on charges of “leaking state secrets”. The verdict of her trial describes the “secret information” as copies of the publicly available newspapers, Kashgar Daily, Xinjiang Legal News, Yili Daily and Yili Evening News, that she sent to her husband in the USA.

UA: 252/09 Index: ASA 17/053/2009 Issue Date: 24 September 2009

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HONG KONG—Authorities in the restive northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi have ordered an overnight traffic ban and posted armed police on public buses, after a bizarre series of syringe stabbings that prompted a large-scale public outcry.

The city government banned traffic in the municipal center from 9 p.m. Monday until 9 a.m. Tuesday, with police guarding every intersection, the official news agency Xinhua said.

Mass protests were sparked in the regional capital last week after reports that hundreds of people had been stabbed with syringes in the city, with a demonstration Thursday leaving at least four dead.

Beijing blames Muslim separatist groups among ethnic Uyghurs for the syringe attacks in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) capital, Urumqi, which was riven by deadly ethnic strife in July that claimed nearly 200 lives, according to the government’s tally.

More than 500 people have sought treatment for syringe stabbings in recent days, though only about 100 showed signs of having been pricked, official media said.

Witnesses meanwhile reported blockades outside predominantly Uyghur neighborhoods and armed police aboard pubic buses.

“All buses now have armed police aboard, and usually there are two of them sitting at the rear,” one young woman said in an interview.

“The city is currently halfway to qualify a status of martial law. Some roads have only one lane open to traffic while cars are less than before,” she said.

“There were occasional attacks [today]. Despite the large number of armed police presence, however, they might be able to control a large group but not every individual,” she added.

Rumors spread

Uyghurs abroad reported that they were largely unable to contact friends and family in the Xinjiang region by telephone.

Rumors meanwhile circulated unconfirmed of syringe attacks in other parts of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), including Shihezi, the second largest city, and Changji, in the central north.

An employee at the Changji City People’s Hospital, contacted Monday by telephone, said staff had received warnings but seen no syringe-attack cases.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, cited reports that some 100 Han Chinese had attacked a Uyghur residential area near Urumqi’s Xingfu Road and Jiefang South Road late Sunday, killing three and wounding more than 20.”

The dead included two men and a woman in her 40s.

He called for a United Nations inquiry and for Beijing to hold talks with exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer, whom Chinese authorities have blamed for instigating deadly ethnic clashes in July.

Urumqi Communist Party chief Li Zhi was sacked over the weekend and replaced by Zhu Hailun, the head of Xinjiang region’s law-and-order committee.

Liu Yaohua, director of the Xinjiang Autonomous Regional Public Security Department, was also dismissed, according to official media.

Tens of thousands of angry Han Chinese took to the streets Thursday and Friday calling for the ouster of Wang Lequan, Xinjiang’s Communist Party secretary, blaming him for failing to ensure their security.

Radio Free Asia

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Monday, 31 August 2009 09:13

World Bulletin / News Desk

Turkish State Minister Zafer Caglayan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Sunday, state-run news agency said.

Caglayan told reporters that they discussed relations between the two countries. Caglayan added that he conveyed Turkey’s views about the incidents which occurred in Urumqi on July 5 and affected everybody deeply.

Caglayan said that Chinese foreign minister briefed him about the measures taken after the incidents in Urumqi. Caglayan added that he would also visit Urumqi.

Caglayan said that Uighur Turks were important for Turkey as they were both Turks and Muslims.

Caglayan is expected to meet with Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao today, Anadolu Agency said.

Uighur demonstrators took the streets in Urumqi on July 5 to protest against Han Chineses’ attacks on Uighurs workers at a factory in south China in June which left two Uighurs dead. Hans in Urumqi sought bloody revenge two days later.

World Uighur Congress said that near 800 Uigurs were killed during a week-violence after Han Chineses attacks and following intervention of China forces. The China governmnet put the death toll 197.

Video appeared showing Chinese lynch that sparked Uighur protests. Exiled Uighur leaders said the protests were peaceful until security forces over-reacted with deadly force.

East Turkistan was occupied by the communist China in 1949 and its name was changed in 1955.

Turkey’s stance

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan called killings “genocide”.

He said: “The incidents in China are, simply put, a genocide. There’s no point in interpreting this otherwise.”

Turkey keeps protests against China violence in Uighur region and a Minister and a Turkish consumer organization has called for boycott of Chinese goods.

Many Uighurs resent Han Chinese rule, complaining they’re marginalised economically and politically in their own land, while having to tolerate a rising influx of Han Chinese migrants.

Meanwhile, human rights groups accuse Beijing of using claims of “terrorism” as an excuse to crack down on peaceful pro-independence sentiment and expressions of Uighur identity.

East Turkistan, that has 8 million Uighurs, borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China’s largest natural gas-producing region.

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HONG KONG and WASHINGTON—The family home of prominent Uyghur exile leader Rebiya Kadeer in northwestern China has been slated for demolition and her family has been served with an eviction notice, according to residents.

Two businessmen, members of China’s mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority, said officials in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) plan to raze the Akida Trade Center, the Rebiya Kadeer Trade Center, and a third smaller building.

The three buildings, located in the regional capital Urumqi, were formerly fully owned by the Kadeer family and are now managed by government authorities. The exiled Rebiya Kadeer currently lives in Washington.

One Uyghur businessman from Gulja (in Chinese, Yining), capital of the Ili Kazakh Prefecture, traveling in Kazakhstan said Urumqi authorities also gave notice of eviction to Uyghur merchants who owned stores in the building.

“Now, Uyghur merchants are forced to rent stores in other buildings owned by Han Chinese. The new buildings offered by the government are more expensive then Rebiya’s buildings, and the buildings are located in an area populated by Han Chinese,” he said.

The businessman said Uyghur merchants are either unable or unwilling to rent space in those areas because of higher tensions between Uyghurs and Han Chinese after violent riots erupted in Urumqi on July 5.

“It is difficult for Rebiya Kadeer’s relatives to find a place to rent in the current situation because Han Chinese hate them and Uyghurs are scared of [renting to] them,” he said.

Ahmetjan, a Uyghur merchant from Atush city in the far West of the remote Tarim Basin, said he had heard that merchants in Kadeer’s buildings were scrambling to prepare for the eviction.

“My uncle had to travel to Urumqi from Atush to find a new location for his business. He had a wholesale store in one of Rebiya’s buildings,” he said in a phone call from Kyrgyzstan, where he was traveling on business.

Thriving business community

Rebiya Kadeer speaking at the Rebiya Kadeer Trade Center, Dec. 15, 1997. Courtesy of the Kadeer family

The Akida Trade Center, which comprises 15 floors and 20,000 square meters of living space, also serves as a residence for Kadeer’s relatives, who draw an income by running a restaurant on the building’s first floor.

A total of 37 family members, including Kadeer’s sister, brothers, and grandchildren, live in the building.

The Kadeer Trade Center has served as the main wholesale center in the XUAR since it was established by Kadeer in 1990.

Several thousand Uyghur merchants have set up shop in both the Rebiya Kadeer Trade Center and the Akida Trade Center.

Both buildings are to be demolished for the construction of a public park, according to the eviction notice.

Local authorities were unavailable for comment.

‘Act of revenge’

Rebiya Kadeer condemned the move by Urumqi authorities as an “act of revenge against me and against Uyghurs over July 5.”

The official Chinese media has branded Kadeer the “mastermind” behind the ethnic riots and regularly accuses her of sponsoring separatist terrorism in the region.

She also voiced concern for her family members, who she said would face difficulty in finding a new source of income and place to live because they have been blacklisted by the government.

“I cannot believe this kind of retaliation—punishing the family members of a political dissident—can still occur in the 21st century. I had thought it was the last act of retaliation when the authorities forced my family to speak out against me on state-owned TV,” Kadeer said.

On Aug. 4, state-controlled television broadcast interviews with Kadeer’s son Kahar, daughter Rushangul and imprisoned son Alim, as well as with Kadeer’s younger brother Mehmet.

Kadeer maintains that her children and brother were compelled to make false accusations about her alleged role in the July 5 unrest.

The day before the interviews aired on television, official news media published a letter that accused Kadeer of having broken her promises not to participate in “ethnic splittism” when she left China.

The letter was signed by her children, their spouses, and five of her grandchildren.

Following her release from prison in 2005, and before her exile to the U.S., Chinese officials warned Kadeer against speaking out on behalf of Uyghurs in China, saying that if she continued to do so her children and businesses would be targeted.

When she later engaged in human rights advocacy in the United States, Chinese officials shut down her businesses and harassed her family members.

Following Kadeer’s election as president of the Uyghur American Association and the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, her sons Alim and Ablikim were detained and imprisoned for seven and nine years respectively.

“The Chinese will do whatever they can to stop my activities. Making my family homeless is probably just one of the measures they have planned,” she said.

Uyghur buildings razed

Kadeer said the buildings are two of the few remaining in Urumqi that were designed in Uyghur-style architecture.

Buildings with Chinese architecture have taken over the city in recent years.

“The authorities don’t want to see Uyghur-style buildings in the [Xinjiang] capital, and they don’t want to see my name anywhere in the city,” Kadeer said.

Officials began demolishing Uyghur-style buildings in the ancient city of Kashgar, in southwestern Xinjiang, a few months before the July 5 incident in Urumqi.

“They can erase my name from the building by demolishing it, but they cannot erase it from the hearts of my people,” she said.

Kadeer, 60, was a self-made millionaire in China and a favorite of the authorities until she spoke out about Beijing’s heavy-handed treatment of her people, who frequently complain of harassment and discrimination and suffer high unemployment.

She later spent six years in prison for opposing the government and was released into U.S. exile in 2005.

Since the Urumqi unrest, the Chinese government has harshly criticized the governments of Japan and Australia for granting Kadeer visas to travel to their countries on unofficial visits.

It has also attempted to prevent an independent Australian film festival from screening a documentary about Kadeer’s life.

source: www.rfa.org

HUMAN RIGHTS IN EAST TURKISTAN Uyghur Foundation Stichting Oeigoeren Nederland Stichting Uighur Jurat Barat  Stichting Uyghur Oost-Turkestan Uyghur Logo Nederlanders Holland Europe HUMAN RIGHTS  Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Erkin Alptekin Rebiya Kadeer

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The Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer has accused the Chinese government of “psychologically torturing” her children, who have written open letters criticizing their mother, and even appeared on national television to accuse her of having instigated Uyghur’s revolt in Urumqi last July.

Speaking with journalists, the Uyghur leader said her daughter Roxingul and her son Alim were forced to accuse her, and bend to the will of Beijing: “The method being used by the Chinese government is perhaps the worst kind of violence against my children! to force them to speak against me … I think that this is a form of dictatorship imposed on them”.

Two days ago, in the early evening the children and the brother of Kadeer appeared on national television news. “The road my mother has chosen leads to a bottomless hole,” said her son Alim, 33, in prison for tax evasion. “With such a strong nation [China], she will fail in her project of separatism.”

A day before the Chinese media gave extensive space to an open letter by her children as they repeated the same accusations that Beijing has laid against Kadeer: of being the cause of the Uyghur revolt in Urumqi and wanting to divide the nation.

The revolts began on July 5, then degenerated into ethnic clashes between Muslim Uyghurs and Chinese Han, which led to the deaths of at least 197 people. China has detained thousands of Uyghurs, but according to Kadeer “in one night” at least 10 thousand people went missing.

“It’s hard for me to imagine what kind of psychological torture they are going through right now,” said the Uyghur leader. “When I was in prison, I was also forced by the Chinese government to say things against my will, in a video posted on a website.”

62 year old Rebiya Kadeer, once a successful businesswoman and member of the Party, fell into disgrace when she began to seek more rights and autonomy for the Uyghur criticizing the government’s policy of colonization. For this she was imprisoned for 5 years. Released in 2005 thanks to international pressure, she now lives in exile in the United States and is a member of the World Uygur Congress.

After a visit to Japan, she has recently arrived in Melbourne to attend the International Film Festival, where a documentary about her life will be shown for the first time.

China initially tried to remove the film from the program, then, faced with a no from organizers, withdrew all Chinese films. In the preceding weeks Beijing also criticized Japan for having given an entry visa to Kadeer and reproached Turkey for having defended the Uyghurs. “China – said the Uyghur leaders – has also put pressure on the United States to curb my activities. I think that because of me, the Chinese government is trying in practice to impose its authoritarianism throughout the world. ”

source: www.speroforum.com

STICHTING  OEIGOEREN NEDERLAND

ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS IN EAST TURKISTAN Uyghur Foundation Stichting Oeigoeren Nederland Stichting Uighur Jurat Barat  Stichting Uyghur Oost-Turkestan Uyghur Logo Nederlanders Holland Europe HUMAN RIGHTS  Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Erkin Alptekin Rebiya Kadeer

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